A prospective study of CFS following infectious mononucleosis in college students

描述（由申请人提供）：约12%的年轻人在传染性单核细胞增多症（IM）后6个月将符合慢性疲劳综合征（CFS）的标准（Katz et al.，2011年）。IM似乎是一个诱发因素，为一些人谁发展CFS。已经提出了许多候选的心理和生物风险因素来解释这一现象，但几乎所有这些因素都缺乏患者患IM或CFS之前的前瞻性数据。一些学生在大学期间发展IM。许多学生健康服务有学生谁使用他们的服务时，他们是医学上很好（例如，与运动有关的伤害和生育控制）。我们的研究将招募西北大学（NU）的学生，他们在医学上以及在他们发展IM和CFS之后使用大学的健康服务。我们将收集生物和心理数据时，学生是好的，当他们开发IM，当他们开发CFS。在3年招募期结束后，我们将继续跟踪那些已经发展CFS的人12个月。我们将收集被认为与CFS发展相关的候选生物和心理因素的数据，如以前的压力生活事件，“行动倾向”，应对技能，自主神经功能障碍，细胞因子水平和IM本身的严重程度。我们拟议的研究将比较这些前瞻性的疾病前（IM）变量，疾病后（IM）的数据之间的学生谁做和不去发展CFS。这项研究将能够确定IM后CFS发展的危险因素。我们有独特的能力来实施这项前瞻性研究与“圈养”和高风险人群的发展IM和CFS。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): About 12% of young adults will meet the criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) 6 months following infectious mononucleosis (IM) (Katz et al., 2011). IM appears to be a predisposing factor for some individuals who develop CFS. Many candidate psychological and biological risk factors have been proposed to explain this phenomenon, but almost all lack prospective data from before the patients became ill with either IM or CFS. Some students develop IM while in college. Many student health services have students who use their services when they are medically well (e.g., for sports-related injuries and birth control). Our study will enroll Northwestern University (NU) students who use the university based health services when medically well, as well as after they develop IM and CFS. We will gather biological and psychological data when students are well, when they develop IM, and when they develop CFS. At the end of the 3 year recruitment period, we will continue to follow those who have developed CFS for 12 months. We will collect data regarding candidate biological and psychological factors thought to be related to the development of CFS, such as previous stressful life events, "action proneness", coping skills, autonomic dysfunction, cytokine levels and the severity of the IM itself. Our proposed study will compare these prospective pre-illness (IM) variables to post-illness (IM) data between students who do and do not go on to develop CFS. This study will be able to identify risk factors for the development of CFS following IM. We have the unique ability to implement this prospective study with a "captive" and high-risk population for the development of IM and CFS.